Hi everyone, Soundpost are running another fab singing weekend of workshops, talks, one to ones and concerts in Dungworth, Sheffield to celebrate the republication of Frank Purslow's series of books Marrowbones, The Wanton Seed, The Foggy Dew and The Constant Lovers which I'm sure lots of people on here will be familiar with.

Here are the details of the weekend:

Be inspired by the collective musical talents of Bryony Griffith, Jackie Oates (Sunday only), Paul Sartin, The Askew Sisters, Jack Rutter, Nick Dow, Steve Gardham and Bob Askew. Soundpost is proud to present the Wanton Seed Singing weekend which will celebrate the songs brought together by the reissue of the classic folk song books Marrowbones and The Wanton Seed and the brand new omnibus edition, Southern Harvest which includes both The Foggy Dew and The Constant Lovers." With lots of opportunities for harmony singing and exploring these songs, this is a chance to enjoy singing your heart out in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside and delving into a superb wealth of lyrics and melodies. Gain insights into how to bring songs to life from the page, thinking about the themes and connections, develop your instrumental accompaniments and much more. There will be a wide choice of practical workshops, singing sessions, talks, performances and one to ones led by the artists in what promises to be a memorable weekend. Get the dates in your diary, and join our the mailing list to be the first to find out more.

The whole idea to publish the new editions was by EFDSS and Malcolm Douglas was asked to do the editing. Once he saw the size of the task he asked Steve Gardham to join him to work together on it. This was before any of the manuscripts were available on the internet. They both spent two weeks together at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House in London working on the manuscripts and the result was the new edition of Marrow Bones in 2007. The next volume up was The Wanton Seed and Steve decided to drop out to work on other projects like the Yorkshire Garland website, so Malcolm made a start on his own. Then tragedy struck as Malcolm was diagnosed with cancer and sadly passed away in 2009. Out of respect for Malcolm, Steve decided to take over the editing. Having completed the volume, EFDSS passed the print-ready volume through various editors’ hands, resulting in it sitting on the shelf for several years until the South Riding Folk Network, under the leadership of Ron and Jenny Day, decided to see the volume through the publishing process in memory of Malcolm. A subscription was raised and Clive Boutle of Francis Boutle Publishers published the book in 2015. Both books had been successful so the editing team now established decided to put the other two smaller volumes, The Constant Lovers and The Foggy Dew, together as an omnibus edition titled ‘Southern Harvest’. This final volume contains biographies of some of the more prolific singers from whom the songs were first collected over 100 years ago and concludes a decade of work to revise and update the collections. The Singing weekend is an opportunity to promote and celebrate the whole series and keep the songs alive! With special thanks to everyone on the team: Ron and Jenny Day at South Riding Folk Network, Steve Gardham, Graham Pratt, Nick Dow, Bob Askew, Tim Radford, Steve Jordan, Clive Boutle

I shall be mainly singing 'No, Sir, No' from 'Marrow Bones' and 'Ratcliffe Highway' from 'Southern Harvest', oh and a doing a lot of talking. Looking forward to discussing making new songs from old. Pretty much 'recycling'.

All the musical aspects sound terrific, but I'm trying to find out the practical details - accommodation? - what's on on Friday and when does it start? - what's the start time on Saturday (in case I can't make it on Friday) - how long does it go on on Sunday? - I followed an email link on the web page but no luck so far, and you can never tell with these embedded email links if you actually managed to send anything (nothing in your "Sent" box of course).

I haven't got a copy of the programme yet with timings but I think the website has a list of what each performer is doing. I know there is an introductory session on the Friday evening as I'm involved in that. Other than that my 2 workshops which will involve plenty of opportunity for discussion are:

Recycling Song: Adding to the tradition. Basically how we have used traditional song in various ways to make new songs. Mostly involving local heritage projects. Lots of examples.

Oral Tradition and Print: In which I'll be expanding on the introduction in The Wanton Seed and looking at how Popular Song, Street Literature and Oral Tradition have interacted over the centuries. Again lots of examples.

I know some of the others are offering more practical performance related sessions.

The full timetable is going to be available after Sunday, but in the meantime the above info is correct. The Friday evening chat will start about 7, then on to the sessions.

An accomm list should be appearing on the website very soon.

Apologies if you didn't get a reply from the soundpost info, one of our admins has been dealing with a bereavement this week, so that could be why. I will check if the email got through or not.

You can contact me on bryonygriffith@gmail.com with any further queries and I can try and answer them or pass it on to someone who can! (I'm the artistic director so not strictly involved in all of that side of things!)

Went two (three?) years ago. Had a great time. Dungworth is a really nice village too. I would definitely be going this year were it not for the fact that I am more skint than I have ever been, and had to make a reluctant sensible decision not to go, being realistic about tax bills and overdrafts.

It's just been decided that I am going to be Gypsy Wagon painting live. OK it won't be a wagon but I am going to have a demonstration board and I'll do Scroll work and paint flower-fruit-Horses heads etc. in Gypsy style. Strange hobby I know, but relaxing. See you there.

I have enjoyed several previous Soundpost weekends. I am fortunate in having very good friends that I can stay with only a couple of valleys away, but there are B&Bs in the area for those who need them. I have been provisionally intending to go this time but ran into difficulty over the choice of workshop sessions, many of them being not for me, excellent as they will no doubt be for those for whom they are appropriate.

I already have a long list of songs that I more-or-less know and should revise or that are waiting for me to learn, so I don't feel a great need to work on songs from these books, but I can recommend this weekend wholeheartedly for anyone who does.

What is the venue for the Saturday concert? (I might be able to get to it but find the usual Saturday events in the Royal a bit claustrophobic. I doubt the pub is big enough to even hold all the performers anyway.)

Looks like good week-end but somewhat expensive. With £190 for Tickets , £160 for B and B £80 for travel plus meals There's not much change out of £500 . Folkies must be a lot more affluent these days. Good Luck with the event

I had to click on Bryony's link to find out what the dates are - and that they unfortunately clash with a festival I'm already booked at - but I can't see them mentioned anywhere in this thread..... so it might be worth pointing out that this will take place on 8-10 June....

Got all of my visuals on a memory stick ready, but also will have some original sheet music and 78s from the 20s to play. To make the 'origins and evolution' workshop a bit more interesting I'm going to ask participants to guess how old the earliest extant version is before revealing.

Brilliant weekend of seriously trad stuff. Organisation was perfection. Even the weather was kind. Askew Sisters were superb. Nick Dow gave a great performance and his song collecting workshop was stupendous. The Wanton Seed Trio (Bryony Griffith, Paul Sartin and Jack Rutter) in great form. All booked guests gave workshops and one-to-one sessions. Great to hear so many songs from the Hammond and Gardiner manuscripts.

Hope it can be repeated sometime. Delightful Dungworth! All made possible as ever by a dedicated team of volunteers.

In the end I decided not to attend, partly because of cost but also partly because I was rather expecting (hoping) to see a proper timetabled programme of events on the website, but alas there was none, just an appetising list of happenings. Surely, any potential attendees require more detailed information before making an informed decision on whether they will be able to take in all they need to over the course of the weekend or part thereof. As others have remarked, it is an expensive weekend if one factors in the cost of travel and accommodation... Maybe some thought can be given to the above points for next time?